Man surprised by size of FEMA housing unit, changes by manufacturer

DENHAM SPRINGS: A man's prayers were answered but somewhere along the line the result got lost in translation.

Gene Bazar received a FEMA trailer Monday, but it's not the one he expected.

"It's too long," he said.

Bazar says he's been waiting to get a Manufactured Housing Unit so he can start repairing his house. The structure took on four and a half feet of water in August.

His property was measured for a MHU in November but the one he got doesn't fit in the space it was measured for. It hangs over half of his driveway, but if you move it off it's property it will sit under power lines and that's a safety issue. Bazar also says it's half the width it's supposed to be, according to the markings on his property.

Bazar says he started calling the Army Corps of Engineers, Congressman Garret Graves' office and FEMA about what happened and what to do next.

"The response with FEMA was that, 'If you didn't accept this trailer they can pull it away but you're not going to get another one,'" he said.

So far, the answers haven't been good for Bazar, who says it's hard to communicate what he's describing over the phone.

Late Wednesday, 2 On Your Side got the answers Bazar was looking for. FEMA says initially when the housing mission started, FEMA had access to larger one bedroom units (12x43). The manufacturer is no longer building those one bedroom units. They are now 8x48, which is the size Bazar has.

FEMA says currently, site reassessments are being conducted on over 600 sites for one bedroom units to determine whether the longer one bedroom unit will fit on the lot.